What exactly is a template

I was thinking the other day, "Why am I never finished with my websites?" someone mentioned templates. I know what they are, I just need to know what part of the page they make up, and how to make an effective one.

Thanks,
kosstr12

Being that this is posted in the "Graphics and Multimedia discussions" forum, I assume that your question pertains to image templates. An image template is basically a website layout created in a program such as Photoshop, then sliced and transformed into HTML + graphics.

Please let us know which image editing app that you use (Photohop, Gimp, PSP, etc) so we can help. :)

dont use one...kinda a noob in image stuff

(also I am confused by the placement of this thread.)

'templating' though, may be better understood by by separating the parts of the 'design process'. There's a number of books which discuss the factionalizing of the different languages/technologies and their respective problems to solve.

Perhaps looking into something like smarty:
http://smarty.php.net/

and understanding those developers perspective will answer your question?